Algemeen

An Ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to UV detection method was developed to determine acetamiprid residues in water reservoirs of northern Benin, close to cotton fields. The quantification limit of this method was 0.2 µg L−1 acetamiprid in water, its precision ranged between 8% and 22%, and its trueness between 99% and 117% (for concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 5.0 µg L−1). Acetamiprid residues were determined in water samples collected in four reservoirs from northern Benin during the phytosanitary treatment period of cotton.

Pesticide use is driving an “alarming” decline in the world’s insects that could have a “catastrophic” impact on nature’s ecosystems, researchers have warned. More than 40 per cent of insect species are at risk of extinction with decades, with climate change and pollution also to blame, according to a global scientific review. Their numbers are plummeting so precipitously that almost all insects could vanish within a century, the study found.

Residue data for seven neonicotinoid pesticides collected between 1999 and 2015 by the US Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) were collated and summarized by year across various food commodities, including fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy, grain, honey, and baby food, as well as water to qualitatively describe and examine trends in contamination frequency and residue concentrations. The highest detection frequencies (DFs) for neonicotinoids by year on all commodities were generally below 20%.

Bird populations in New Mexico are failing to take off — in fact, they’re nosediving. A study conducted by scientists at the Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) found that piñon pine trees are dying in growing numbers, which is having adverse effects on wildlife in the area — especially birds.

Since European settlement, over 100 species have been lost here. These include plants and animals that are extinct and extirpated, and species that are considered historic (no one has seen them in Canada for a long time). The number of lost species varies between different regions of the country. In the Great Lakes region of southern Ontario, there are extinct species (passenger pigeon), extirpated species (paddlefish) and historic species (Eskimo curlew). There are also species that have vanished from this landscape but still exist elsewhere in Canada.

Bees tend to get the most attention as pollinators critical to the survival of plant species. But lizards, mice, bats, and other vertebrates also act as important pollinators. A new study finds that fruit and seed production drops an average 63 percent when vertebrates, but not insects, are kept away from plants.

An overwhelming majority of surveyed farmers are concerned about the proposed Bayer-Monsanto merger and believe it will have a negative impact on independent farmers and farming communities, a poll released on March 6 has found.

The black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) has the most restricted distribution of all spoonbills, and it is the only one regarded as endangered. There remain only about 3,300 spoonbills, and the species spends the mating season on small islands along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and in China’s Liaoning province, the WWF says. “With such a small global population, the black-faced spoonbill is inherently vulnerable to extinction,” it says.